Spring 2027

Chemical Process Thermodynamics

Introduction to thermodynamics, energy balances, steady/unsteady processes, pure fluid behavior, and chemical reaction equilibria.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Rahul Sujanani3.5/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Rahul Sujanani

Students described exams as difficult and noted that one reviewer felt the tests covered topics only vaguely related to classwork, with no practice exams provided.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe the relationship between heat and work through the first law of thermodynamics

  • Determine limitations imposed by the second law of thermodynamics on the conversion of heat to work

  • Describe the definitions and relationships among the thermodynamic properties of pure materials, such as internal energy, enthalpy, and entropy

  • Obtain or estimate the thermal and volumetric properties of real fluids

  • Employ energy balances in the analysis of batch, flow, and cyclical processes, including power cycles and refrigeration

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

(MATH 234 or 376), (PHYSICS 201, 207, 247,E M A 202 or M E 240),CBE 250, and (CBE 255 or concurrent enrollment), or member of Engineering Guest Students

CBE 310 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.75/5 from 4 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Rahul Sujanani

Rahul Sujanani's teaching style received sharply divided feedback; one student found his lectures informative and exams fair, while another described them as unengaging and irrelevant to the exams. Exams were characterized as difficult by one student, and a third noted that Sujanani did not provide practice exams, directing students to the textbook instead.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 3.01 GPA, 37.8% A/AB (n=45 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.10 GPA, 46.2% A/AB (n=65 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · James Miller, Matt Gebbie

James Miller was organized and easily accessible on Canvas, and made a challenging course clear; his exams were fair and not hard, but students had limited time to finish them. Matt Gebbie taught a conceptually challenging thermodynamics course, was accommodating with exam schedule conflicts, and students found assigned reading key to success.

BRIAN PFLEGER is recorded teaching in Spring 2010, Spring 2011. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

CHRISTIAN TORMOS is recorded teaching in Fall 2016, Spring 2017. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JAMES MILLER is recorded teaching in Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KATELYN DAHLKE is recorded teaching in Fall 2020, Fall 2023, Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MATT GEBBIE is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

NATASHA MALLETTE is recorded teaching in Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Spring 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

RAHUL SUJANANI is recorded teaching in Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

REGINA MURPHY is recorded teaching in Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ROSS SWANEY is recorded teaching in Fall 2011, Spring 2014, Spring 2019, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 650
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 350
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 350

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Rahul Sujanani

Opinions on Rahul Sujanani's teaching are sharply divided; one student found lectures poor while another rated him highly and compared him favorably to other professors.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.10 GPA, 47.9% A/AB (n=48 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.01 GPA, 37.8% A/AB (n=45 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.10 GPA, 46.2% A/AB (n=65 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Rahul Sujanani

Students described exams as difficult and noted that one reviewer felt the tests covered topics only vaguely related to classwork, with no practice exams provided.

Past student reviews · Rahul Sujanani

Some students appreciated Sujanani's informative lectures and preparation, recommending attendance despite low general turnout, while others found the delivery unengaging.

Topics

  • Thermodynamics and energy balances
  • Steady state and unsteady state processes
  • Behavior of pure fluids
  • Chemical reaction equilibria

Skills

  • Apply the first and second laws of thermodynamics to analyze heat and work relationships.
  • Analyze thermodynamic properties of pure materials and estimate properties of real fluids.
  • Perform energy balances for batch, flow, and cyclical processes including power cycles and refrigeration.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.14 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
CBE 310 · Spring 2027

Chemical Process Thermodynamics

Recorded 2026-10-29
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261029T213040-0fa85c20",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:220:002673",
    "course_id": "CBE 310",
    "course_uid": "course_b5f2d69262376f2247530313",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "002673",
    "source_subject_id": "220",
    "title": "Chemical Process Thermodynamics",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-29

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2Download part 3
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "bad36eee85b2b53c1306a58a119bba8894508f555a0c5e548291c5917863eb13",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "c9cd06eaa45f9ddf7e69faa38b89ff3d3dd995dd",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00"
}